1776

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:56 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for language
Profanity:	Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	References to war
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the film, decisions to maintain slavery and lack of rights for women
Date Released to Theaters:	1972
Date Released to DVD:	July 2, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	B000067D1R

Happy Independence Day! There’s only one possible pick of the week for the 4th of July.

This rousing musical about the Declaration of Independence makes the Founding Fathers vivid, human, and interesting characters, and is so involving that you almost forget that you already know how it all turned out. William Daniels is the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams, Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, who would rather be with his wife than work on the Declaration, and Howard da Silva is a wry and witty Benjamin Franklin. As they debate independence, we see the courage that went into the birth of the United States, and as they compromise with the South to permit slavery in the brand-new country we see the tragedy. It is outstanding family entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iiiy8GnBNI

Mao’s Last Dancer

Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Director Bruce Beresford, best known for “Driving Miss Daisy,” returns to the themes of cross-cultural connections in this film based on the memoir of Chinese ballet star Li Cunxin.

Li (Chinese surnames appear first) was taken from his poor, rural family at age 11 to study ballet. Madame Mao had declared the arts to be a priority and officials were sent to the furthest reaches of the country to find children who could be trained. Li succeeds more through determination than passion or natural ability, and despite Madame Mao’s insistence on ballet performances based more on political messages than on art. His family (with the radiant Joan Chen as his mother) is very proud of his contribution to China.In 1979, in the early, fragile days of US-China diplomatic relations, Li is sent to spend some time as a guest trainee with the Houston ballet, led by Ben Stevenson (the always-superb Bruce Greenwood).

His English is poor. His understanding of anything other than what he has been told by the Chinese authorities is non-existent. The Americans’ ability to understand him is not much better. But there is the common language of dance. And there Li is so dazzling he is quickly given an opportunity to perform in a key role on stage. The audience loves him.Li does not want to go home. He becomes romantically involved with a tender-hearted young dancer. He appreciates the opportunity to perform without regard to the political content of the ballet. He consults a lawyer (a crafty Kyle MacLachlan). He takes a very big risk for himself and also for those who have befriended him.The film feels episodic and oddly understated and remote. That may be in part because the key role of Li is divided between three actors, Wen Bin Huang as a child, Chengwu Guo as a teenager, and Chi Cao as an adult. Or, it may be because Li the character is reserved by nature and training and something of a cipher. But like its title character, the movie comes alive in the ballet performances, which are well-staged and convey not only the creative energy of their own story-telling but the ultimate expression of the performers’ passion for their art.
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The King’s Speech

Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:00 am

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Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language
Profanity:	One brief scene with profanity used as a vocal exercise
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Social drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	None
Diversity Issues:	Class difference
Date Released to Theaters:	December 17, 2010

One of the best movies of the year makes a king look like an underdog in the true story of a man who had to literally and metaphorically find his voice, with in a very real sense the fate of the world depending on it.
It wasn’t because she didn’t love him, she explains, when she turned down his proposal of marriage twice. It was because he was a prince, a member of the British royal family, and she did not want to live a public life. And then she remembered that she did love him. And that he had a stammer, so she concluded that would keep him on the sidelines. And then she married him, and they had two children. And then he became king.
The Duke of York (Colin Firth), known as Bertie to his family, was an almost-ideal second son in the royal family. He served honorably in the military and took his public duties seriously. He had no interest his brother David’s position as the heir to the throne. But then three things happened. First, radio was invented, and all of a sudden a dignified wave was not enough. For the first time, all of Great Britain (encompassing, at that time, one quarter of the developed world) could hear the voice of their leaders. Second, Hitler’s aggression was making war inevitable.
And third, Bertie’s brother David, by then King Edward VIII, would shatter precedent and become the first ruler in British history to resign, in royal terms, to abdicate, so that he would be free to marry an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson. Just at the moment when the British people most needed to hear their king, they had a king who could not TIFF-Kings-Speech-colin_firth_helena_bonham_carter_kings_speech4.jpg speak.
The best doctors had been consulted, and Bertie had been subjected to treatment that literally went back to Demosthenes. And then the Duchess brought him to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian actor who had worked with the shell-shocked veterans of WWI. As an actor, he knew breathing techniques and other exercises to help make the spoken word smooth and compelling. And his work with the veterans showed him that the relationship between the therapist and the stutterer — and sometimes the opportunity to talk about the stutterer’s experiences and fears — could be very important.
And so Bertie has, for the first time ever, conversations with someone outside his family. He desperately wants to maintain his dignity, but he even more desperately wants to be able to play this increasingly more crucial role.
The movie may be sepia tones and British accents but it is not at all stuffy thanks to Firth, Rush and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife. Firth shows us Bertie’s struggles to locate his voice and define his role. In one scene, when he tells his little girls (including the current Queen Elizabeth) a bedtime story, it is almost unbearably touching because it means so much to him and the story is so self-deprecatory and loving. People who have trouble speaking spend a lot of time listening and observing. Bertie watches his father and brother with deference, a need for approval, and also a thoughtful evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses as though he is measuring them as a way of creating himself.
The heart of the film is Bertie’s meetings with Lionel, and they are a marvel. Screenwriter David Seidler, himself a one-time stutterer whose uncle was treated by Lionel, worked on the screenplay for decades (the Queen Mother asked that it not be produced until after her death), and it is a masterwork that merits all that went into it. At age 72, Seidler knows what it is to find one’s voice.

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List: Civil War Movies

Posted on April 12, 2011 at 3:47 pm

As we observe the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, a defining moment for good and bad in American history, it is a good time to watch some of these great films that show how we continue to try to make sense of its causes and its consequences.

1. Glory Denzel Washington won his first Oscar in this story of the doomed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first black units to be made up of black soldiers. Writer-director Edward Zwick is sensitive to the many levels of the story but above all it is a compelling and heart-rending drama of honor and courage under the most devastating circumstances.

2. The Red Badge of Courage A young soldier learns courage does not mean lack of fear; it means not letting the fear stop him from doing what needs to be done in this movie based on the classic book by Stephen Crane. It stars two real-life WWII heroes, tthe most decorated soldier, Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin, who won a Pulitzer prize for his Stars and Stripes cartoons about the men on the front.

3. The Civil War – A Film by Ken Burns This spell-binding documentary tells the story from the first bullet fired to the surrender by Robert E. Lee, with indelible images and unforgettable readings from the people who were there.

4. Friendly Persuasion Gary Cooper and Anthony Perkins star as a Quaker father and son, farmers who must decide how their faith guides them in the midst of a war that literally comes to their doorstep. This is a beautiful film, and a rare portrayal of faith that is respectful and sincere.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCn-HuYRM0g

5. Shenandoah James Stewart plays the father of sons he insists have no reason to get involved in the war, until his youngest is taken prisoner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec-lmjqBOw0

6. Gods and Generals It is a bit stuffy, but its sincere respect for its subject and diligence about historical accuracy makes this story of Stonewell Jackson worth watching.

7. The Andersonville Trial This is the story of a court-martial trial that revealed the horribly abusive conditions of the notorious facility where Yankee prisoners were kept and explores the question of when an immortal order may be disobeyed. The outstanding cast includes William Shatner, Martin Sheen, Cameron Mitchell, and Richard Basehart. (A more recent film, Andersonville, is the story of the prisoners.)

8. The General Buster Keaton stars in this silent film about a Confederate soldier who goes on a daring mission to rescue the two things he loves most, a girl and a train. Unquestionably one of the funniest and most exciting films of all time.

9. Gone With the Wind Still the biggest box office champion of all time, this is a movie about love and war and power but mostly about survival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9ftIzRAgAk

10. Sherman’s March A documentary film-maker plans to make a movie about the enduring impact of William Tecumseh Sherman’s devastating attack. But just before he was to begin, his girlfriend dumped him, so instead he made a movie about why his love life was such a disaster, with intermittent references to Sherman.

There are dozens more, featuring everyone from Clint Eastwood and John Wayne to Nicole Kidman, Elvis Presley, and Shirley Temple. Each is as much a reflection of its time as of the era it depicts. But together they form a mosaic to help us understand and, we hope, to preserve the union.

Soul Surfer

Posted on April 7, 2011 at 6:01 pm

Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb) tells us that as a child she spent more time wet than dry. She is the daughter of competitive surfers, home-schooled so that nothing would interfere with her training or her opportunity to go out into the water when the waves were good. And then one morning, when she was 13, a shark bit off her arm up to the shoulder. Determined that nothing could stop her from doing what she loved, she was back on her board a month later.

Two powerful forces kept her going, Bethany’s passion for surfing and her faith in God. This movie does a better job with the first than the second. The surfing scenes both before and after her injury are gorgeously portrayed, taking us inside the waves so that you will almost feel the spray on your face as the surfers rip around the swells. Writer-director Sean McNamara and the talented surfers on screen convey not just the experience of harnessing the power of the ocean but the thrilling rush of it as well. But he does not bring the same energy to the faith-based part of the film, which feels flat and more dutiful than heartfelt, like a youth group curriculum pulled off the Internet.

One problem is Carrie Underwood, a lovely performer who just does not have the acting skill she needs for Sarah Hill, the youth counselor who guides Bethany both before and after the attack. Perhaps because the film-makers are trying to please both faith and secular audiences, the faith-based elements of the story are thin and vague, reduced to a parable about not being able to see the big picture when you are too close and a trip to a very tidy settlement area in Thailand after the tsunami. The mention of Jeremiah 29:11 is not as significant as her doctor’s reassurance that “the things you are going to have to learn to do differently is extensive but the things you won’t be able to do is small.”

The real turning point is the scene where Bethany receives a prosthetic arm that does not give her the functionality she expected. That is a far greater blow than the original injury because it is only then that she must acknowledge that her loss is permanent. It is only then that she is able to have an honest re-evaluation of her faith, her priorities, and her options. In another sober moment, Bethany’s father (Dennis Quaid) silently matches the bite mark on Bethany’s surfboard with the enormous jaws of a captured shark, confirming that this was the beast that attacked his daughter.

Robb conveys Bethany’s resilience and athleticism. McNamara has a good sense for the rhythms of teen girl friendships (I still think that Bratz is underrated) and the scenes with Bethany and her friends capture the warmth and excitement of young girls on the brink of mastery of skills and the beginning of independence. But like its main character, it really comes alive when it catches the waves.

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